


New Constellations

by sharkinterviewee



Series: Starmora Week 2018 [3]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Character Study, Childhood Memories, Constellations, Emotional, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Halcyon feelings, Healing, Introspection, Late Night Conversations, Little Dipper, Love, Peter Quill Earth Feels, Peter Quill's romantic date ideas, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Sappy, Softness, Stargazing, Starmora Week 2018, Stars, Sweet, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, big dipper, soft talks, ursa major
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 11:44:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15885381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharkinterviewee/pseuds/sharkinterviewee
Summary: “I haven’t seen these since I was 8 years old,” Peter breathed in wonder, staring up at the sky. He had told her this was a romantic thing to do. That on his homeworld, the top three sappiest date ideas were dinner and a movie (classic), going on a picnic (made better with wine), and stargazing (the most romantic- he said. And also the best for making out).Day 3: Stargazing





	New Constellations

“I haven’t seen these since I was 8 years old,” Peter breathed in wonder, staring up at the sky. He had told her this was a romantic thing to do. That on his homeworld, the top three sappiest date ideas were dinner and a movie (classic), going on a picnic (made better with wine), and stargazing (the most romantic- he said. And also the best for making out)

“The stars?” Gamora asked in confusion- he’d spent his whole life among the stars, even more so than her. Her life was spent on her homeworld as a child, or on Sanctuary after Thanos took her, only using interstellar travel to get to and from missions for most of her life. Between missions was really the only time she spent in space and among the stars. Granted, it was more time than most, but not as much as him. Peter lived among the stars his whole life (after he left earth). He grew up in space on a Ravager ship, always traveling, and even after he parted ways with them, his home was still on a spaceship, the Milano, and then the Benetar, respectively. He didn’t just live among the stars. His home _was_ the stars. She didn’t know what he could possibly mean, staring up at the stars next to her and saying he hadn’t seen them since he was 8 years old.

“No,” Peter shook his head, a smile in his voice, and a sort of serenity across his countenance. He sounded thoughtful as he lazily played with the ends of her hair, still looking up, not at her, when he answered her question. “The constellations.”

_Oh,_ she looked up. The sky taking on a whole new meaning for her.

“What are they? Are there any here?” She asked, her eyes scanning the sky like she had any idea what to even look for. But all she could see was a sea full of stars. “Do you remember them? What they’re called?” She asked, more gentle this time. When she turned her head to look at him she saw the subdued expression on his face- a little sad, a little nostalgic, a little homesick, and missing someone very much- and she knew he was thinking of his mother.

Peter had told her before how much she loved the stars. Nothing to do with the spaceman she fell in love with (those stories of romance and high fantasy now tainted with the truth). His mother had loved the stars since she was a little girl as young as he was. And she shared that love with him. That love that was all her own, and then Peter’s. She instilled a love of space and solar quasars that couldn’t be ruined with the thought of an asshole celestial. That love of stars belonged to her and Peter, and them alone.

That was why he wanted to come here, wanted to do this tonight. She could tell by the look on his face right now. He wanted to share this with her. This was sacred.

Of course he had to emphasize the potential for making out and getting up to mischief in the dark part of stargazing instead of telling her the real reason he wanted to come. That was just so him.

“Some,” Peter answered softly with a small, bittersweet smile. Gamora entangled her fingers with his, and he briefly closed his eyes, leaning into her warmth.

“That one’s the big dipper,” he told her, pointing it out in the sky with his free hand, the one entwined with hers squeezing tighter.

“Those?” She asked, trying to trace the shape of the stars she thought he was pointing out, wanting to make sure she got the right one.

“Yeah, and over here,” he said, moving her hand so she was pointing at another cluster of bright stars, “Here we’ve got the little dipper.”

“Mom had it memorized like the back of her hand,” he continued. “She could always find ‘em, even on cloudy nights. She knew exactly where to look, even if only the brightest of the brightest stars were out. She knew where everything was. If we go back over here to the big dipper, you see the stars around it that are a bit dimmer?” He asked, waiting for her nod of confirmation. “Well, if you put ‘em together like this,” Peter said, guiding her hand to trace the stars, connecting the dots. “You get an even bigger constellation. It’s supposed to be a bear. Ursa major. Mom liked that one.”

Gamora couldn’t help but giggle. “A bear? That looks nothing like a bear. Earth bears don’t have tails like that, do they? No, we saw one of the white ones!” Gamora argued, because polar bears were probably the cutest creatures she had ever laid eyes on. “They have little furry tails! Not long ones like that. That looks more like a dragon to me.”

“Hey, don’t look at me,” Peter raised his hands in mock surrender, a genuine smile blooming across his face. “I didn’t get to name ‘em. I would’ve named ‘em something much cooler. But that’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge of constellations here. Probably should’ve looked some up before hand, so I at least looked like I knew what I was talking about for once. There you have it. The names of three constellations. This tour is now officially over.”

Gamora rolled her eyes, giving him a playful swat on his shoulder that he caught, and pulled her in for a kiss. He was right. Stargazing was romantic. So was kissing under the stars. When they parted, Peter was looking up at her with the most fond look in his eyes, and it took her breath away. When he reached a careful hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear, she could have sworn her heart skipped a beat.

She leaned down again, kissing him on the forehead, and Peter sighed and held her close.

“Let’s make up our own,” Gamora suggested excitedly.

“Hmm?” He twiddled with her hair, and she wasn’t sure if he even really heard her question.

“Let’s make up our own constellations. We can name them right this time around.”

Peter’s face positively lit up at the idea.

So he wrapped his arm around her as she settled into his chest, and they spent the rest of the night making new constellations in the sky, connecting the dots and giving them much better and much cooler names than anyone else could come up with.

For all of his talk beforehand about it, they didn’t make out even once when stargazing that night. No, they just spent the whole time giving each other light little kisses in between giggling like children at the ridiculous pictures they kept pointing out to each other. Making their own patterns in the sky.

Gamora was glad he showed her. Shared this with her. Maybe the love of stars could be hers now too. Her and Peter and no one else.

**Author's Note:**

> I think this is my shortest one of all 7 days
> 
> It really is interesting when you read about how many civilizations throughout history across the world have looked up at the sky and thought "huh, that one looks like a big bear" and completely independently named the same group of stars after the same animal (that has such a cute little tail)
> 
> I mean, I get humans looking up and thinking "Ah, that looks like a spoon/ladle/pot" let's name it after our language's equivalent, like I get the big dipper being collectively named the same thing by humanity. But a bear? Come on.
> 
> PS. I don't know when Gamora saw a polar bear. Maybe they went to the zoo. Or maybe she saw it on the documentary mentioned in Day 1


End file.
